Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Nucky Thompson senses that his brother Eli, Jimmy Darmody and the Commodore are conspiring to take Atlantic City from him, even as federal charges over his election fixing threaten his office and his freedom. Jimmy and Eli join the Commodore’s effort to seize control, while Chalky White is arrested amid rising racial violence and Nucky works to keep the city’s Black community from being used as a target. Margaret Schroeder sees how Nucky’s political and criminal lives intersect, and her decisions increasingly affect the case against him. Jimmy, now running his own operation, tries to prove himself to his new allies and to his mother Gillian, whose interference unsettles his household with Angela and their son Tommy.
The Commodore’s stroke leaves him incapacitated, but the coup against Nucky continues through Jimmy and Eli. After Angela is murdered by Manny Horvitz, Jimmy confronts his mother Gillian and tries to strangle her; the Commodore stabs Jimmy with a spear, and Jimmy kills his father in the struggle. Nucky’s political connections help him survive the election fraud prosecution. He marries Margaret partly to prevent her from testifying, while she secretly deeds the land he gave her to her parish. Jimmy later helps Nucky defeat the case and asks him to settle the danger Manny poses. Nucky refuses to forgive Jimmy’s betrayal: when Jimmy comes to him, Nucky shoots him dead. Eli returns to his brother’s organization, while Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky begin moving into heroin.